Holloway Graphite Set
Twelve graded pencils, 4H to 8B, cedar cased, in a tin
$34.00
USDStandard shipping $8.00, free over $75. Arrives in 3–6 business days. 30-day returns.
Twelve grades: 4H, 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 6B, 8B. The spacing is deliberately tighter at the hard end, where a grade step is a small change in value and you need the intermediate steps, and wider at the soft end, where each step is dramatic and 5B and 7B would be indistinguishable in use.
The grades are checked against a reference set rather than matched by eye. That sounds like a small thing until you have replaced a 2B two years later and found it laying a different value than the one it replaced — which is what happens when a maker matches by eye and their eye drifts.
Cased in cedar, which sharpens cleanly and does not tear. The core is centred to within 0.2 mm, so a long point sharpens symmetrically instead of going off to one side.
The specification
Everything we know about this item, stated plainly. The same record is printed on the card in the box.
- Composition
- Kiln-fired graphite and clay cores in cedar casings, twelve grades from 4H to 8B. Hinged steel tin with a moulded tray.
- Dimensions
- Pencils 176 mm × 7 mm hexagonal; tin 195 × 118 × 14 mm
- Weight
- 5 g per pencil; 218 g the set with tin
- Finish & variation
- Matte lacquered casings, grade stamped on two faces so it is readable whichever way the pencil lands. Core centred to within 0.2 mm. Grades checked against a reference set, so a replacement will match.
- Made
- Pressed and kiln-fired in Nuremberg, Germany, then cased in cedar and finished here. Grades are checked against a reference set rather than matched by eye.
Care
- Sharpen with a blade or a long-point sharpener rather than a school sharpener.
- Store flat in a roll or a tin — a dropped pencil breaks the core along its whole length invisibly.
Cautions
- Not for wet work. Graphite laid into a damp sheet burnishes and will not lift again.
- Not erasable to white at the soft end. Anything past 4B leaves a grey ghost no eraser fully takes back.
- A dropped pencil is likely ruined even if it looks fine — the core fractures internally and will shed every time you sharpen it.
Shipping
$8.00 standard, free over $75. 3–6 business days. Full policy
30 DAYS
Returns
Unused and in original packaging. Refunded within 5 business days of reaching us. Full policy
Questions about this product
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